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Rating: 
Summary: Accounting background recommended
Review: I don't want to rate the product as such (3 means neutral) but I would advise anyone thinking of using Peachtree to either have an understanding of accounting or an accountant nearby. It is a very good program but it does demand some accounting kowledge or technical skill.
Rating: 
Summary: Would not buy again
Review: I got this product (Accounting 2004) to run my small business. I would not recommend this product to anyone.I tried running the included tutorial to learn to navigate around this product, but the tutorial was meaningless to someone who is new to accounting principles - the tutorial is simply a imaginary company with imaginary data. It just shows you in which "bin" each of the imaginary data goes, but doesn't help you to correlate your information to the imaginary data and then into the "bins." This is particular true for me since the tutorial provides for a typical products based company (i.e. lots of invoices from vendors and some invoices from your company), while my business is a service business - much like the audience for this Peachtree product. I couldn't fully service business information on top of their product based company tutorial. The final straw that made me junk this product before fully implementing it is that this product does not (or at least I cannot find) understand setting up multiple checking accounts and/or setting up a trust account. In my line of work I handle trust money and must account for each client's trust money in a pooled trust account. I don't believe this product gives me that ability and upon a call to Peachtree customer service, they would not answer this basic question without requiring me to pay for a service plan. The help file and online help community was likewise unhelpful. Yes, they offer 30 days of free customer service, but my issue cropped up after the 30 days time period. In short I am out a bunch of money for a product that I will uninstall. I don't even think I can sell it at a substantial discount legally. I would recommend Quickbooks instead of this thing.
Rating: 
Summary: Awesome
Review: If you were smart and took advantage of a $160 rebate offered by a major office supply store to get this product for free, you would share my feeling that this is one of the best things I EVER bought. After using it for a year-I would even pay the $160-it's that good! Sure, you need a rudimentary knowledge of accounting to set your business up in Peachtree-but if you're not willing to put the time in to learn that, you shouldn't be running a small business in the first place. Peachtree doesn't serve up all the answers on a plate-you have to put some effort into understanding how your business decisions impact your accounting. Is that so terrible?
The fact of the matter is, this program has taught me more about the accounting process than I ever wanted to know. And in the process, has allowed me to focus on growing my business instead of just entering data. I didn't start a small business to sit there entering information.
Major pros-
1/email function-turn off your fax machine and click twice to email purchase orders.
2/import function-has saved me literally days-set up a .csv file - click -and purchase orders, invoices, payments and receipts are written-as if by magic!
If you're in a highly detailed business-spend some time witn Peachtree and you'll never know how you got along without it!
Rating:
Summary: Would not buy again
Review: This product is too complex for a small or home-based business. Try Peachtree First Accounting for something that won't take up all your time. Also, beware if you use a high-end version of Windows - they claim "Product will not operate in a Windows Terminal Server Environment using Windows Terminal Services". Well, ignore the "using" part of their statement. It won't work if terminal services simply _exists_ on your machine, whether you're currently using it or not! I guess they are concerned with piracy, but this is over the top, and I doubt even applicable to this product considering its intended audience and use. It's not like everyone in a small business is going to be running this software via terminal services to access a single installed PC. The business owner is just going to run it as needed. In any event, this would not be an issue had one of their developers spent 5 minutes extra and put the _proper_ check in - don't check for the existence of terminal services, but rather check to see if the user is logged into the console, and if so, let it run, else don't.
Rating: 
Summary: Too Much
Review: This product is too complex for a small or home-based business. Try Peachtree First Accounting for something that won't take up all your time. Also, beware if you use a high-end version of Windows - they claim "Product will not operate in a Windows Terminal Server Environment using Windows Terminal Services". Well, ignore the "using" part of their statement. It won't work if terminal services simply _exists_ on your machine, whether you're currently using it or not! I guess they are concerned with piracy, but this is over the top, and I doubt even applicable to this product considering its intended audience and use. It's not like everyone in a small business is going to be running this software via terminal services to access a single installed PC. The business owner is just going to run it as needed. In any event, this would not be an issue had one of their developers spent 5 minutes extra and put the _proper_ check in - don't check for the existence of terminal services, but rather check to see if the user is logged into the console, and if so, let it run, else don't.
Rating:
Summary: Very complex for Small Business
Review: This software could be good if you are an experienced accountant. However I think it is very complex and hard to work with if you want it to be simple and fun to work with. Good luck in your selection.
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